THE crazed killer of tragic detective Mick Swindells was this afternoon ordered to be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric unit.

THE crazed killer of tragic detective Mick Swindells was this afternoon ordered to be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric unit.

Judge Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said he could not envisage a time when paranoid schizophrenic Glaister Earl Butler would not pose a 'serious danger' to either himself or the police.

But outside the court Butler's brother, Lee insisted: "He has been let down by the system. He has been ill for over ten years but nobody did anything for him."

This afternoon, mental health specialists announced two separate inquiries into events surrounding Butler's care in the community.

Prosecutor Timothy Raggatt QC told Birmingham Crown Court: "There is an enormous amount of concern that someone on the face of it, as dangerous as he was, was at large in the community. I am at loss as to how that came about."

In passing sentence, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said: "I would, of course, support any steps that may be taken in the future to minimise and eliminate the risk of police officers being exposed to death of serious injury at the hands of those subject to the scrutiny of mental health professionals."

The court heard how Butler, who had a long history of mental illness, thought the police and security services were out to get him.

The intelligent mechanical engineering graduate had also become adept at conning the mental health professionals into thinking he was taking his medication - and also hiding symptoms of his condition.

When police went to arrest him for threatening a council contractor sent to simply fix his gate they were not aware of his violent past.

Butler plunged a knife into the stomach of Det Con Swindells as he and group of colleagues chased him along a canal towpath beneath Spaghetti Junction on May 21 last year.

The prosecution alleged that Butler, while having underlying mental health problems, was not overcome by his illness at the time he delivered the fatal blow.

Today they dramatically dropped the murder charge because expert medical evidence no longer supported the charge.

Instead, Butler was formally convicted by the jury of the manslaughter of Det Con Swindells on the grounds of diminished responsibility - a charge to which he had pleaded guilty.

The judge did not criticise the prosecution's decision to try Butler for murder.

Outside court Det Chief Insp Glenn Moss said the anguished family of the 44-year-old officer, who have sat through the eight day trial, were "content with the decision".

Following the case, Sue Turner, Chief Executive of the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, announced plans for the two inquiries.

Praising the officer's bravery, Police Federation chairman Paul Tonks said: "Without doubt Mick Swindells was a hero and his action epitomised the very best of British policing."

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Inside the tortured mind of a killer

THE sad sight in the dock of the man who stabbed to death hero detective Mick Swindells highlighted the tragic cruelty that the onset of mental health problems had on his once brilliant mind.

In the early 1980s Glaister Earl Butler was feted as the first black graduate trainee at prestigious car makers Rolls Royce.

Despite leaving school in Willenhall with just a handful of CSEs, Jamaican-born Butler worked his way through evening college and onto Aston University where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Butler had moved to England from Jamaica with his family when he was just eight, following his father who had moved for work some years earlier.

Experts believe his mental health started to deteriorate when he was made redundant in 1982.

His paranoid delusions involved persecution from the police, MI5 and the security services.

When interviewed by psychiatrists in the mid-90s he blamed his redundancy on the police, claiming they had approached bosses and told them not to employ black people.

Butler was detained under the Mental Health Act a number of times.

A week before his first detention in March 1994 in Stafford, Butler launched an unprovoked attack on a neighbour, kicking him in the head as he washed his car. It was an incident that had clear parallels with threats he made to a council carpenter on the morning of the fateful day Det Con Swindells was killed.

At the time he was sectioned in 1994 he tried to escape from police by jumping out of a first floor window. He repeatedly absconded from hospital.

In March 2001 he was detained by police at Queens Road station. He was released later that year back into the community under the intensive care of an outreach team based at Harry Watton House, in Aston.

Despite showing no signs of his paranoid schizophrenia emerging, Butler had stopped taking his medication and managed to deceive his carers that he was all right.

Even so, consultant psychiatrist Dr James Collins, who works at Ashworth high security hospital in Liverpool, said while he might no have been experiencing the core features of his illness such as hallucinations and delusions other features were present.

He concluded that while Butler had periods of being severely unwell, there was never a period when he was not ill at all.

But minor changes in his condition might not have been picked up by his carers who said they never had any major concerns for him.

But unbeknown to them, his life was slowly unravelling. On the day of the killing he received a letter from the council saying he was in rent arrears and they were looking to repossess his flat.

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Hero's wish to protect the public

MICK Swindells joined the police because he wanted to play his part in "making the country safer for everyone".

Colleagues who knew the married father-of-two said Det Con Swindells was a "warm, charismatic and enthusiastic" detective.

Following his death, Det Con Swindells' boss Chief Supt Tom Duffin described him as "someone who worked hard to make a difference".

Other said he was always first on the scene when help was called for.

Born in 1959 in Hyde, near Manchester, Det Con Swindells had previously served as a lance corporal with the Royal Engineers.

After leaving the army he chose to pursue a career in the police because he wanted to help protect the public, and joined West Midlands Police on October 24, 1990.

Det Con Swindells, who lived in Burton-on-Trent with his wife Carol and daughter Kelly, began as a uniformed officer stationed in Erdington, and was a popular beat bobby patrolling High Street.

After a spell on the burglary squad he went to Queen's Road police station, Aston, in 1995 as a liaison officer with the Football Intelligence Unit.

He was a keen Manchester United supporter and his colleagues said he became used to the ribbing about the fact he was based less than a quarter of a mile from the ground of Premiership rivals Aston Villa.

From 1999-2000 he worked with the crime team before returning to uniformed duties. He then went on to offer his skills as a member of the robbery team based at Nechells, where he worked on solving several high-profile cases.

In 2001 he joined the CID department at Queen's Road police station as a detective constable, his dream job.